Spinach Parathas Stuffed With Potatoes

“Mop my brow minion”-Shiva Chaudhuri

Hardest things about learning Indian cuisine? Adjusting to a whole new set of spices, and getting the breads whether they be rotis, parathas or naan to come out consistently. My rotis are now consistently puffing, and flavorful and my naan, well, it’s following close behind.  Of all the food that Shiva has taught me to make, some that he hasn’t made in years, we only had one disaster and that was our first attempt at potato stuffed parathas that we over-spiced to the point of being totally inedible. Though I am no spice champion, others around me like their food much hotter than I can handle (my friend Ray, requested that I make him pickles with habaneros, I put 5 per quart jar and he insists that they are delicious) I am no wilting flower, so when I say they were too hot to eat, they were nuclear.

Given that my rotis are showoffable and my spice foundation solid, we tried again and this time we got it right.

Spinach Paratha Dough

1 1/2 cups chopped spinach

1 teaspoon carom seeds

2 cups chapati atta

We started by making the spinach paratha dough by grinding the spinach in a food processor until it became pastelike.

Put the spinach in a bowl and mix in the carom seeds.

Add the chapati flour and knead until smooth. You might need to add 2-4 tablespoons of water depending on your spinach.

Wrap in saran wrap and let sit for at least 15 minutes. In the mean time make the potato filling.

Potato Filling for Parathas

2 potatoes boiled, skins removed and mashed

1/2 cup chopped cilantro

1 TBSP salt

2 tablespoons chunky chat masala

1 tablespoon mango powder

1 teaspoon turmeric

1/4 teaspoon red chili powder

1/2 teaspoon cumin

1/2 teaspoon coriander

1/2 small green chili chopped

Once the potatoes are mashed add the spices and mix well. Add in chopped cilantro and mix again.

When the dough is ready, break into large meatball sized balls and roll. Then flatten with your fingers into disks. Fill each dish with 2 tablespoons of the dough sealing the filling in and press down until disks again. Pat each disk in chapati atta flour, and get ready to roll.

Roll them until about as thick as a pita, don’t worry if some of the filling leaks out. At this point you have two cooking options. You can fry these in a couple of tablespoons of oil, or you can dry roast them in one pan, then move them to a second pan where you brush them with oil, which is what we did. Once they are browned on each side they are done, about 2-3 minutes per side.

Teaching Andrew; Pan Seared Lamb Steaks with Sauteed Dino Kale

This weeks lesson was pan searing, because let’s face it pan searing is every hungry cooks favorite trick. Not only is it an incredibly quick way to cook almost any animal protein, from lamb steaks, scallops, chicken, venison, quail, tuna, to all other delicious fish, when done correctly the pan seared crust is unique carmalized goodness while the inside stays medium rare, juicy and tender. The key to pan searing is to make sure both the pan and oil are sizzling hot, as in just before smoking. You want it actually hear the animal protein sizzle as it hits the pan and once it does hit the pan do not move it around.  Ideally, pan searing is done in a cast iron skillet, but can be done in other metal skillets as long as they don’t have a mirror finish or teflon. For really good local meat I recommend just seasoning it on both sides with salt and pepper and searing in 2 tablespoons of  either safflower or grapeseed oil, both of which have a high flash points, for 3-4 minutes per side for medium rare.

Before we put the meat in the pan we stemmed and shredded the kale into bite sized pieces. Last week when Andrew gave me a surprising long list of vegetables that he loved, kale wasn’t on it but spinach was and I thought the risk was worth taking. Once the meat hit the pan we put 2 tablespoons olive oil in a separate pan and heated over a medium high heat, then added 1/2 bunch of the kale, which cooks way down like spinach. We sprinkled the kale with a teaspoon of kosher salt, 1/2 teaspoon black pepper and 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes (not Andrew’s favorite and he would leave it out next time) and stirred quickly. After the kale cooked for another minute we added 1 1/2 tablespoons red wine vinegar and cooked for another 2 minutes while stirring. The entire meal took us less than 20 minutes to make including prep, less time than it would have taken Andrew to order something in a restaurant, fast food or not. He was most impressed with the speediness.

Though it isn’t a great idea to eat pan-seared red meat all the time, it is still better for your body to eat local and organic foods made at home with no chemicals added than it is to eat almost anything pre-packaged. The real high light of this story was that Andrew a few days later went out and bought himself a lamb chop, cooked it at home and enjoyed it with a green salad he also made. Seriously, I couldn’t have been prouder when I received this picture below.

I may have teared up a little. Next week we are taking on healthy burritos say bye-bye to sour cream and hello greek yogurt.

Related Articles

• Recipe: Pan-Seared Scallops with Ginger-Curry Mango Sauce (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Pan-Seared Venison Chops in a Spiced Marinade (marksdailyapple.com)
• GO GREEN! – Avocado and Pan Seared Shrimp Salad (thefloribeancook.wordpress.com)
• Kale & Potato Gratin with Kale Pesto (missiondelectable.wordpress.com)

Spinach, Mung Beans and Stuffed Artichokes Caught in the Web!

Fall is cooking season and I am more than content to stand in my kitchen and try recipe after recipe challenging myself to try new foods and new techniques. Admittedly, I’ve been going a little crazy and I’ve tried so many recipes this week, that I have to break them down into a couple of posts. This I will call vegetable side dish heaven.

I love vegetables I do, but spinach is one of those vegetables that I eat more because its good for me rather than out of sheer love, thus I am constantly on the prowl for a spinach recipe that will elevate it from the, “Fine, I’ll eat it.” To the, “I hope they have spinach today at the market so I can make_____.” Interestingly, when I was reading this weeks blog entries for Foodbuzz’s Project Food Blog, two of my favorite blogs, You Feed a Baby Chili?!? And Korean American Mommy both had a recipe up for Korean Blanched Spinach or Sigumchi Namul. This side dish is delicious, just tasting the sauce which is soy, kosher salt, sugar, white vinegar or rice vinegar, a thinly sliced scallion and red pepper flakes, forewarned me that I had found my, “I hope they have spinach today!” dish. Both recipes did call for toasted sesame seeds, but sesame seeds bug me since they insist on lodging themselves in between my teeth so I tossed in a few drops of sesame oil instead.

Korean American Mommy also had a recipe up for Korean Mung Beans Sprouts which caught my eye because I had mung beans leftover in my fridge from all the Pho eating I’ve been doing, I recently cooked a cow shank into a whole lot of Pho stock. It was novel for me to actually cook the mung beans, I have only used them raw where I am throwing them into a soup or a hot dish where the ambient heat essentially quick cooks them, and I have never eaten them as a side dish on their own. This side dish was so delicate, crisp and clean in flavor and I was delighted by the texture that I ate quite a lot on their own before I did end up adding them to the spinach thinking that the crisp texture of the mung bean would be a nice contrast to the spinach. Both of these side dishes had some staying power and where just as flavorful and crispy 24 hours later when the remnants were devoured as a midnight snack.

Last week I asked a bunch of my friends for a list of things that they would really like someone to cook for them, for whatever reason. I got quite an interesting list and one of the things on the list was stuffed artichokes. I love artichokes but had never had them stuffed. Roasted, boiled, steamed, dipped in butter, aioli and cheese sauce yes, stuffed no. I used a recipe from Saveur.

The stuffing was very flavorful and very light, but it did end up being a little soggy. I may have stuffed the stuffing to far down into the artichoke. In the end I liked the idea more than the actual product. I think that I may be an artichoke purist and truly prefer them simply steamed and served with really good melted butter. I certainly wouldn’t turn down a stuffed artichoke if it landed on a plate in front of me, but I probably would not make them stuffed again, however if you are a stuffed artichoke lover this is a great recipe and the failings of the dish were mine alone.

Related Articles

• Celebrate National Spinach-Lovers’ Month With These Recipes (blogher.com)
• Meatless Monday: Here’s How You Can Do It (biggreenpurse.com)
• imabonehead: Almost Bourdain: Come Dine with Me (7): Japanese Spinach Ohitashi; Spice Temple’s Chinese Stir-Fried Pork with Green Onions; Thai Pork Pad Kra Pao with Fried Egg (almostbourdain.blogspot.com)